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Reforged Night Elf Agent

An experiment with the new models from Warcraft III Reforged, this skin changes the Night Elf Archer to remove her cape, pauldrons and loincloth, as well as changes the bottom garment that was under the loincloth to something that better matches the top piece.

This model could work well for an archer that was captured and had her equipment taken but managed to escape and find a bow, or a Night Elf citizen who has taken up a bow to defend her home. It could also work for a stealthy infiltrator who would be hindered by additional armor and an unnecessary cape/cloak.


I originally only intended to remove parts to see if it was possible, but was dissatisfied with the simplistic piece of clothing under the loincloth. I figured I'd quickly replace it, but once I got started I couldn't help but try to make it look somewhat good. :grin: It could still use more detailing and embellishment to match the other parts of her clothing, but it turned out better than I expected!

The file paths are:
units\nightelf\archer\nightelf_archernightelf_main_diffuse.dds
units\nightelf\archer\nightelf_archernightelf_main_orm.dds
units\nightelf\archer\nightelf_archernightelf_pauldron_diffuse.dds

But you must also double click on the Mode and change it from SD to HD. This will change the full filepath to look like: "_HD.w3mod\units\nightelf\archer\..."

- Be aware, this removed most of the parts that showed Team Color, so it's much harder to tell her color at a glance. I experimented with adding Team Color to the upper part of her leg-wear, but wasn't satisfied enough with the result. Let me know if you have any ideas!

- I tried creating a simple normal map for the skin, but it doesn't seem to work in Reforged properly. However, the change made is so small and hard to notice that it's likely not worth the file size necessary to include it in a map anyway.
The closest I've gotten to it working properly involved inverting the B channel and reducing the R and G channels to 66% opacity, but it still isn't quite right and you can see seams. A thank you to @Antinous for his post here which, while mostly not new information to me, inspired me to experiment with the color channels more.

It is also possible the problem stems from extracting the normal map DDS with CASCView, if it somehow mishandled the export, but that is entirely speculation.

Curiously, the original normal map doesn't match the original diffuse in the area I modified anyway, and it's possible the original normal map more closely matches the slightly more revealing shape of my modification than the original diffuse map.

- All screenshots taken ingame, as the Reforged editor doesn't properly render many effects, like shadows, terrain fog or rain splashes.

- If you don't want to remove the cape and pauldrons, don't use the pauldron diffuse texture. Using only the main diffuse and main orm textures will remove the loincloth and change the outfit bottom without affecting the pauldrons or cape. (The alpha channel of the diffuse maps is what is being used to make parts invisible.)

Enjoy! It isn't much, but it's only the second model reskin on here for Reforged so I figured it could still be useful. Feel free to modify it or use it however you like; I'd appreciate credit if you use my work but that's all. Happy mapping!
:thumbs_up:
Previews
Contents

Reforged Night Elf Agent Main Diffuse (Texture)

Reforged Night Elf Agent Main Orm (Texture)

Reforged Night Elf Agent Pauldron Diffuse (Texture)

Reviews
Footman16
A simple but effective texture for Reforged with many uses as outlined in the description. Efforts have also been made to edit the texture beyond simple Alpha colouring of certain parts. Looks good and is useful, so approved.
Level 3
Joined
Jun 7, 2009
Messages
6
What's next, send nudes?
I hadn't actually checked the feasibility of a fully nude retexture. A quick test shows that the upper part of the bikini-esque outfit is mostly just painted on like the bottom part that I edited, though not entirely. So making her fully nude wouldn't be completely possible with textures alone, though you could get close. (You'd also have to edit the diffuse, normal AND orm to get it working right.) A fully nude version would require simple mesh editing, moving the vertices in slightly. (The bottom of the top is the part that needs mesh editing.)

I'm not volunteering to do that, by the way, just discussing it from a technical standpoint. :xxd: Wouldn't surprise me if somebody does it, though.

For some reason, I love it
Ah yes, some... strange, unknown reason... I can't imagine what that might be.:cute:

On a more serious note, glad you like it! I think it turned out surprisingly well! I wasn't originally planning to share it, but since it exceeded my expectations and there are so few uploads for Reforged, I figured it could be a useful submission.
 
Level 8
Joined
Aug 2, 2012
Messages
224
Interesting, need more things like that for Reforged ! Do you think it's possible to remove the wyvern of the wyvern rider to make it a spearthrower ? (Dont know if you can add grunt walk animation or something like this)
 
Level 3
Joined
Jun 7, 2009
Messages
6
Interesting, need more things like that for Reforged ! Do you think it's possible to remove the wyvern of the wyvern rider to make it a spearthrower ? (Dont know if you can add grunt walk animation or something like this)
The method I used doesn't actually remove the parts, it just makes them invisible. Animations are completely separate from textures, so nothing I can do there either.

What you're asking for is more @Retera 's wheelhouse. As he shows in this thread, he managed to take the mounted Jaina and remap it to the non-mounted one. Might be possible to take the Wind/Wyvern Rider and remap it to the Troll Headhunter to get what you're looking for, or something like that.
 
Level 3
Joined
Jun 7, 2009
Messages
6
Do you plan on doing more model edits like this?:peasant-ok-hand:
If any particularly good ideas come to me, maybe. :wink: This was partially proof of concept, and I figured demonstrating it was possible and effective might inspire others to try doing the same thing. (Alpha-ing out parts is quite easy, though I went further than that for this skin.) This isn't technically a model edit, by the way, just a skin!

Whether or not something like this is possible depends on the model; the human sorceress, for example, doesn't have shoulders under her pauldrons or a waist under her belt. When we can edit Reforged models more effectively that might not be hard to fix, but we're still figuring out that part.
 
Level 8
Joined
Mar 28, 2008
Messages
470
If any particularly good ideas come to me, maybe. :wink: This was partially proof of concept, and I figured demonstrating it was possible and effective might inspire others to try doing the same thing. (Alpha-ing out parts is quite easy, though I went further than that for this skin.) This isn't technically a model edit, by the way, just a skin!

Whether or not something like this is possible depends on the model; the human sorceress, for example, doesn't have shoulders under her pauldrons or a waist under her belt. When we can edit Reforged models more effectively that might not be hard to fix, but we're still figuring out that part.

Okay. What about alpha-ing out weapons from melee characters. Is that possible?
 
Level 1
Joined
Feb 10, 2020
Messages
4
Awesome.
And sorry for asking but I'm new: just wonder if we can ever use Reforged models/skins in Warcraft 3?
 
Level 4
Joined
Nov 26, 2013
Messages
23
I would check out the version of DDS you are using, I usually use Paint.net for editing DDS formats.
So test around, which DDS format will work, perhaps you are using an alpha less DDS format when saving automatically and you need to change the settings on saving as dds.

Sadly can't give you more of an insight, as I dont actually have Reforged or Photoshop :p
But some ideas are better then no ideas right?

Cheers.
 
Level 4
Joined
Mar 2, 2023
Messages
28
I would like to use this model in my Night Elf campaing, but as I see it would replace original model. I already used "stand up" model for normal Archer in gameplay, but created custom unit of Archer who use original, so in campaing NE rebels, tribes etc., use that custom model (with original look), while playable, army, use stand up look.

This one would be indeed useful for me but I can't use it as it would replace already existing model. If this could be made so I can replace Art Model File I would use it.
 
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